Images of Pain, Images of Hope: African Films as Narrative Theologies of Gender and Sexuality

Cinema is one of the great media of storytelling that, with its images and sounds, draws viewers into a different world and addresses their bodies, minds, and hearts. In this contribution, I will develop an argument for African cinema as a source of narrative theology that is contextual and liberative in its critical and constructive functions. In conversation with African women’s and queer theologies, I will then reconstruct the narrative theologies emerging from films produced in Africa that address women’s issues and diverse sexualities. I argue that they develop, through images of the pain of sexism and homophobia, a theology of hope of flourishing life. Thus, they contribute to the life of a church that is able to overcome prejudice, recognizes the gifts of its diverse communities, and is a space for all to flourish in love.